Celtic lost 3-0 to Zenit St Petersburg on Thursday night.
Stoke City boss Paul Lambert has told The Herald that he doesn’t think Celtic’s balance between and attack and defence is right under Brendan Rodgers.
The Bhoys beat Aberdeen 2-0 on Sunday afternoon to re-extend their lead their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to nine points, with Celtic now closing in on a seventh straight league title.
Celtic continue to dominate Scottish football under Rodgers, but they have now crashed out of Europe after a 3-0 defeat at Zenit St Petersburg on Thursday evening.
Brendan Rodgers’ side led 1-0 from the first leg of their Europa League round of 32 clash, with Callum McGregor bagging the winner at Celtic Park, but a defensive horror show saw the Bhoys lose 3-0 in Russia.
Defensive issues appear to be a recurring theme for Celtic in Europe, as whilst the likes of Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic have been solid in Scotland, it has been an entirely different matter in Europe.
Many fans want to see Celtic splash the cash on a new centre back to truly replace Virgil van Dijk following his 2015 move to Southampton, but Rodgers made two relatively cheap purchases in January by signing Marvin Compper and Jack Hendry.
Neither of them featured against Zenit, and former Celtic midfielder and now-Stoke City boss Paul Lambert has told The Herald that he thinks the balance ‘doesn’t seem right’ in terms of sitting back or going for goals in Europe.
Lambert suggested that Celtic had the upper hand after the first leg, but they were too scared to go for more goals in Russia, and ended up sitting back and being exposed defensively, calling on Celtic player to play with confidence rather than be concerned about previous heavy defeats in Europe.
“Celtic had the balance of that tie after the first leg,” said Lambert. “We would all concede that finances play a major part but to me that is a tie that Celtic could have won. It wasn’t entirely unrealistic to think they could have come out of that tie and gone on to the next round. They got an excellent win in the first leg and that was a dangerous result for Zenit. To me, there was a sense that the heavy defeats in the Champions League took their toll – it was as if there was a fear to go and try for a goal in case they left themselves exposed. Had they been able to go out and get that away goal the tie would have been heavily slanted in their favour.”
“I am never one to compare eras because I think it is unfair but what I would say is that we had a team that were streetwise and strong enough to go out and have a sense of belief in a situation like that. We scored goals against top-level clubs – that [3-2] defeat in Turin [in 2001] still irks me to this day because we should have had a point against Juventus – and having that ability to go and score a goal alleviates pressure throughout the entire team. The balance just doesn’t seem right at the minute. You need to be able to stand strong in these games and play with confidence in yourself and in one another,” he added.
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